In today’s digital world, it’s critical to have an engaged and loyal online audience. One of the most effective ways a business can reach their target audience directly is through effective email marketing campaigns.
The past year has brought many new changes to the email world. Email is still a primary digital tool for marketers and businesses to invest in. Actually, 72% of people say they prefer companies to email them compared to any other online channel. With an average ROI of 38-1 on every dollar invested, email marketing currently has the highest ROI among other digital marketing platforms.
Listed below are three helpful tips that we find are the most effective when it comes to email marketing strategy.
Write like a 3rd Grader
Let’s face it, in today’s digital world we see a very diverse level of writing skill. Earlier this year, our friends over at Boomerang came out with some great data explaining why it’s most effective to write like a third grader when it comes to email content.
The data shows that emails written at a 3rd grade reading level perform 17% higher than emails written at a college reading level. Yes, I know, this might be a hard concept for some to grasp, but I think the key takeaway here when it comes to email is “keep your content simple.”
Simple content means digestible content. No one wants to read a college novel that’s been embedded in a nice email template. Email is meant to be short and sweet with a strong call-to-action. Write like a 3rd grader, but strategize like an expert.
Stop the Sales Automation
Way too often we see emails that are automated with no human element. Gone are the days where you can copy and paste the same sales email into the same template and expect people to engage with you.
If writing original and more personalized emails doesn’t entice you to stop bad automation, then maybe some significant data will.
Data shows emails that are more personalized with a concise purpose perform better. Especially emails that express sentiment. Strong sentiment words, both positive and negative, show much higher engagement. Words like great, wonderful, happy, bad, hate, horrible, etc. show a 15% better open and response rate.
People don’t want tacky automated sales emails anymore, and we don’t think they ever did. It’s time to start personalizing your emails when it comes to your marketing. Stop sounding like a used-up car salesmen who copies their emails, which brings us to our next point: Be human.
Be Human. Invest.
No one likes talking to a robot; it’s that simple. If you’re not willing to invest and actually harness a relationship with the audience your building through your email list, then you might be in the wrong business.
In the digital marketing world, we’re in the business of value. If you’re trying to increase your email response rates, increase more digital sales, and ultimately enhance your overall user experience you’re giving your audience – then being human is a must.
Being human forces an issue most companies have a hard time with: investing in their constituents. When your company is in the business of building relationships as opposed to making money, you make a company-wide commitment to care. Investing in your clients starts with the value you’re giving them via any touch-point they have with your brand – from mass emails, and meetings – all the way down to phone calls with your assistant. If you’re not human and being real with them, I bet you’re not adding value for them, which means one thing: you’re not investing in them.
Small businesses should focus more on building quality email lists and utilizing a strong email marketing strategy to keep their customers engaged. Not having a quality email list is one of the most common mistakes small businesses make.
If you want to learn more about how you can better utilize an effective email marketing strategy we would love to chat. Or even better, if you’re local, treat you to coffee.
Start Enhancing Your Email Marketing Today